First Kiss
by oursolemnhour49
Summary: Yuan has the perfect plan to win a kiss from Martel- make her give it as a bet in a round of poker. Given that he has three jacks, how could anything go wrong? One-shot.


**This is a really random idea that I badly wanted to write. I've never written anything I'd feel comfortable labeling humor, but I found this idea entertaining. I hope you enjoy it! **

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Yuan glanced across at Martel as she concentrated on her cards. He hadn't expected her to enjoy poker in the slightest, but she'd been surprisingly adept at bluffing, and had even won a few hands. A faint smile was on her lips as she smoothed back a strand of pale green hair. She looked lovely as the sunlight fell on her face and hands, and that sight hardened Yuan's resolve that he was going to try out his plan, no matter what Mithos's reaction was. He'd met her, Mithos, and Kratos a few weeks before while travelling one of Sylvarant's backroads, and lately her bright green eyes had been making his heart beat a little faster whenever she turned his way.

But Mithos had noticed Yuan's interest in his older sister and had been furious about it. The little half-elf was sitting some distance away on the edge of the clearing where they had stopped to rest. Yuan glanced at him. The boy had had no idea what cards were necessary to win, and he had been cleaned out by Kratos several hands ago. The blue-haired half-elf sighed a little. Since it was Kratos, he was probably just going to give the kid back his money as soon as this hand ended, along with a lecture on not to gamble if one couldn't carry a hand.

Yuan hoped this hand would close soon. He'd dealt the cards, so he would have to wait till last to place his bet, but with the last turn of the cards, he had been given three jacks. He was fairly sure he could take this hand, and the anticipation of his plan made Yuan very impatient for the red-headed swordsman at his left to make his move.

Unsurprisingly, Kratos checked. Yuan felt his heart begin to pound. More than ever he felt that his plan had a chance of coming off. He glanced at Martel, who used the last of her currency on the previous card. He knew that she would be forced to check as well, since she had nothing to bet, and tried to think what he could say to bring about his suggestion.

But to his astonishment, she bit her lip and then glanced at the two men. "What if I want to bet, but I don't have anything to put in?" she asked, her eyes bright with excitement.

Kratos sighed a little, but Yuan immediately spoke up before the mercenary had a chance to open his mouth. "So you want to bet without any money?" he said slowly. "You must have a good hand."

Martel immediately laughed aloud. "Yes, it is!" For a moment Yuan spared a moment to wonder how a girl who'd stood so well in the place of a mother to Mithos could be so artless. Not that he was complaining. When she laughed, it made her eyes sparkle and made her altogether one of the prettiest women he'd ever seen. And her words had given him the perfect opening to make his suggestion.

"Well- if it's that good- there is one thing you can bet."

She glanced at him. "What's that?"

Yuan took a deep breath and hoped he sounded nonchalant. "A kiss for the winner."

Two pairs of disbelieving eyes met his green ones. "What?" Yuan exclaimed somewhat defensively. "It could work. I bet there's a lot of people who'd put money down to be kissed by Martel."

"And how many of them are with us?" Kratos asked dryly. "At the moment, it seems there is only one."

"Wait." Mithos straightened up from beside the stump at the edge of the clearing where he'd been sitting. "Yuan wants to kiss my sister?"

Yuan mentally kicked himself and prepared to face a burst of Mithos's temper unlike anything seen since the day he had first joined Martel, Mithos, and Kratos. But the blond boy merely stared for a few seconds and then burst into laughter. Feeling somewhat deflated, Yuan turned to face his fellow card-holders. "Can we hurry up and get this hand over with?"

"Well, your suggestion showed that you have a certain amount of confidence in your hand," Kratos commented dryly.

"I do have confidence in my hand; more than you have in yours," Yuan retorted with a smirk, and was rewarded with a glare from the human.

"Gentlemen," Martel said quietly. "I'd like to remind you that this argument is pointless, since my hand's going to be the winning one."

Yuan's mouth fell open. This girl really was amazing. "So you agree to what I suggested?" he asked with a smile.

"Why not, since I'll be winning?" she answered with a laugh.

"Very well," Yuan answered. He found himself unable to decide whether to hope that she was right, or whether to hope for victory. It was true that seeing her laugh was one of the most amazing sights he'd ever seen- but the thought of kissing her was enough to make him dismiss any hope that she would walk away the victor.

Without thinking he tossed his cards down in the grass that lay between the three of them. "Can you beat that?" he asked with a grin. "Three jacks!"

The cards that had been dealt during the game were a ten of clubs, an ace of hearts, a nine of diamonds, a queen of hearts, and the jack of clubs that had given Yuan his hand. Martel glanced at the cards and her brow furrowed. Then to Yuan's horror, her face lit up. "Yes, I can!" she cried, and tossed two queens into the ground opposite his jacks. "Three queens!"

The blue-haired half-elf could scarcely look at Martel, who was sitting opposite him laughing. He longed to turn invisible or crawl away behind the stump where Mithos was sitting. Never had any defeat tasted so bitter, not even when he had lost to Mithos in a game of strategy that Kratos had thought up during one of their longer marches. He glared at the ground and waited for Martel to scoop up the pile of gald. Nor did he did not look up when Mithos came running up to the group. Let the brat congratulate his sister. The two would go and laugh about it tonight when they set up camp and he'd have to sit and listen to them recount how Martel had beaten him.

But Mithos did not immediately congratulate Martel. Instead he looked at all of them with a very mischievous smile. "So Kratos," he asked cheerfully, "what's your hand?"

Yuan felt as though his stomach was being tied into knots. Impossible. It wasn't possible that Kratos had won. He glanced at the human and felt a trickle of horror creep down his spine. The swordsman was staring at his cards with a blank expression that made Yuan very worried indeed. Mithos jumped forward and yanked the cards out of his mentor's hand. His eyes widened gleefully. "He has a straight," the blond boy said lightly.

"Impossible!" Yuan shouted. He jumped up, barely avoiding the cards that lay on the ground in front of him. "That- he can't have a straight! You must have mixed up the hands, Mithos, you couldn't get them right in the game."

"Let me look," Martel said coolly. Yuan wished he could kick himself; now he had made her angry with him as well as appearing ridiculous. Clenching his hands, he watched as she took Kratos' cards from Mithos and compared them to the five that lay by the deck.

After a moment she straightened up, and Yuan found himself feeling very nervous when he saw her bright smile. "He does have a straight," she said lightly. "He has an eight here- with the nine, the ten, the jack and the queen, that gives him the straight. So… I guess that would make him the winner. A straight does beat three-of-a-kind, right, Yuan?"

"I- yes- but- I-" Yuan found himself stuttering and felt his face burning. How could this plan have gone so horribly wrong? Kratos had checked for the past three cards that had been dealt! How could he have had a straight the entire time?

He glanced over at the human and felt some relief when he saw that Kratos looked as embarrassed as he felt. Quickly the swordsman stood up. "The… Yuan's condition does not apply to me," he said hurriedly. "If you two had not shown your cards ahead of turn, I would have folded."

"But you didn't," Mithos said with a grin. "So you're the winner and Martel has to kiss you!"

"She does not!" the swordsman exclaimed, looking more agitated than Yuan had yet seen him. The sight would have amused the half-elf more if Kratos' state of panic was the not the result of Yuan's humiliation.

"What? Are you saying you don't want to kiss my sister?" Mithos's voice had a note of definite enjoyment, and Kratos seemed to notice, muttering something about extra training at dawn for the boy tomorrow.

"I did agree to the condition," Martel said thoughtfully. Horrified, Yuan stared at her. She ignored him and looked at Kratos without any trace of embarrassment. "So I guess I have to fulfill it, don't I?"

Before either Kratos or Yuan could say a word, she came up to Katos, put her hands on his shoulders, and kissed him full on the mouth. Mithos gasped as it became apparent she was in no hurry to end the touch. Yuan felt ready to explode, but could not bring himself to tear his eyes away. He resolved to 'accidentally' arrange for Kratos to fall in a mud puddle as soon as he got the chance. Or perhaps not a mud puddle. A pond, a river, anything that would cause this swordsman to appear completely ridiculous would do.

After what seemed an eternity to the blue-haired half-elf, Martel stepped back from Kratos and began to pick up the scattered cards as though nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. "Come on, Mithos," she said with all the gentleness of an older sister. "We have to get going soon. Right, Yuan? Kratos?"

Neither of the men responded. Kratos was standing exactly as he had when Martel came up to him, looking dazed. Yuan was trying to tell himself that it was Martel who had initiated the touch, and from there trying to convince himself that it would do him no good to punch the swordsman in the face. The thought of knocking Kratos flat on his back was sorely tempting, but in the long run, the half-elf felt it would not improve his standing with Martel.

Martel and Mithos made their way back to the road and waited. Both Yuan and Kratos remained motionless in the forest clearing for almost a minute. Finally Martel shouted, "Boys, come on! What are you doing?"

Yuan whirled on Kratos. "If you ever mention that to anyone, I'm going to knock out your teeth as soon as we're alone."

"Hmph." Kratos seemed to wake up a little and shrugged. "I doubt you could do that. But if it makes you feel better, I will not mention it." Yuan breathed a sigh of relief until Kratos went on, "It's considered bad taste to brag about one's victories in love."

At that Yuan let fly with one of the finest right hooks ever seen in Sylvarant.

Meanwhile, both Martel and Mithos were sitting by the side of the road. They both jumped at the crashing sounds that came from the clearing they had just vacated. After a second Mithos glanced up at his sister. "Should I go and check on them?"

Martel bit back a laugh. "I think they'll be fine."

"But they're beating each other up," Mithos said, looking confused. "Even for them, that can't be fine." Then he grinned suddenly. "Is it because you kissed Kratos and not Yuan?"

"Yes, I think that's part of it."

"How was it?" Mithos asked suddenly.

Martel looked up as she fished her panpipes out of her pack. "How was what?"

"Kissing Kratos." The boy made a face as he said the words.

Martel giggled. "Not bad. But I think I'd rather kiss Yuan instead. And if things keep going the way they are, I think I'll kiss him soon."

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**Poor Yuan... XD **

**Reviews would be lovely! **


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